With development of internet, the requirement for computer and cyber security keeps increasing, and corresponding encryption algorithm and technology also develop rapidly. The current encryption technology can be divided into two categories, namely, symmetric key technology and asymmetric key technology. Asymmetric key technology has been widely used because it can avoid transferring decryption key (i.e., private key) via network.
Currently for people skilled in the art, the most well-known technology of asymmetric key is PKI (Public Key Infrastructure). Operation of PKI relies on two parts: hierarchical CA mechanism (Certificate Authority) and bulky certificate database LDAP. PKI depends on third-party authentication to solve the problem of ID and key binding. This requires building up a bulky hierarchical CA authentication mechanism. PKI also needs support from online operating certificate database, which initiates large network information flow volume, for example, in order to obtain a certificate from the other communication party, one needs to authenticate with CA hierarchically. Thus, scholars worldwide, including some PKI companies, are actively looking for a new solution.
Another promising encryption technology is IBE (Identity Based Encryption). In 1984, Shamir proposed identity-based signature idea, and speculated the existence of identity-based encryption (IBE). However, he failed to find out how to implement such idea.
In 2001, based on Shamir's idea, Don Boneh and Matthew Franklin proposed using Weil pairing to realize identity-based encryption. Comparing with PKI, although IBE algorithm discards bulky hierarchical CA mechanism, IBE still needs to keep parameters associated with users. Because the parameters relate to each user, the number of parameters quantity is proportional to the amount of users. As long as user related information needs to be published, it needs support from databases such as directory database (LDAP), and thus dynamic online maintenance cannot be reduced.